2011 Tournament
M-M-Rch Madness had begun five years earlier. Favorites had been established. Bands that had a reasonable chance to make a run had been identified. It was evident that Tool was expected to take the 90's. Metallica would have the 80's. Pink Floyd or perhaps Led Zeppelin would have the 70's. The 00's were an unimportant crapshoot, considering the only band to ever win out of the 00's won riding a head of steam from the biggest bandwagon we've ever seen develop, while needing considerable help to pull it out. Only a bandwagon of the magnitude that sent Breaking Benjamin through the finals of the 2007 Tournament could possibly create an improbable winner. So as everyone talked about who they expected to win the bracket, the favorites were all 1 or 2 seeds (except Tool, of course, who always draws a low seed.) Nobody was even looking at a sneaky #3 seed that would have to go through two past champions to do it, and certainly not at a band that had a tournament record of 3-4 in their home bracket. After all, could a sub-500 band really bubble to the top and win 6 matches in a row, against some of the toughest competition the rock world can throw at them? The tournament format was generally unchanged from the previous year. Some of the DJs hosting matches posted pictures of the texting screen to help verify that they weren't fixing things. However, they still refused to show vote totals. On some occasions we can gather that from the vote difference they cite, but the results are pretty inconsistent, ranging from a couple hundred to well over 10,000. Votals don't change that much from match to match. The bracket itself wasn't a big surprise. Tool and Led Zeppelin were heavily underseeded, and all of the 3 seeds appeared to be in over their head. Some other bands did get some props from seeding this year, however, like Alice in Chains, The Offspring, and newcomers Papa Roach and Cage the Elephant. Still, the tale of this tournament would be the semifinals results and one little letter. Significant Info * 70's winner: Aerosmith * 80's winner: Metallica * 90's winner: Tool * 00's winner: Linkin Park * Biggest upsets by the numbers: (16) ZZ Top over (1) Rolling Stones, (14) The Police over (3) Guns'N'Roses, (8) Tool over (1) Pearl Jam (lol) * Biggest upsets by expectation (besides champion): (9) Cage the Elephant over (8) Breaking Benjamin, (7) The Killers over (10) Kings of Leon, (10) Korn over (7) Stone Temple Pilots, Linkin Park over Metallica (semifinals) * Voting was under the same format as before, text or phone. Text votes were strictly the letters A or B for simplicity. DJs were also accepting e-mails and the odd fax vote. 70's Region Analysis At first glance, the biggest anomaly to the bracket was that Led Zeppelin was a 6 seed, and therefore would face (2) Pink Floyd before the region finals. This meant the top half of the bracket was wide open. It was especially open with The Rolling Stones as the 1 seed, since they are almost guaranteed to lose their first match. This year was no exception. The question would be who would emerge from the top half of the bracket, and if they could post one good lucky win against either Floyd or Zeppelin, whoever was the victor. The easiest pick here was Jimi Hendrix, who in spite of seeding, is known to post incredible wins at times. He dropped in round 1, and the focus shifted to Queen, who did indeed win the top half of the bracket. However, things did not turn out as expected on the lower half. An Aerosmith fan named Patty Grabowski had lost her home several months earlier in a gas explosion, along with her precious Aerosmith memorabilia. She had written Steven Tyler about this, and on the third day of the tournament, he happened to call her to wish her luck and promise to try to replace what he could for her. During the conversation, Patty happened to mention to the frontman that Aerosmith had just beaten the Ramones in the tournament, and Tyler decided he should call the station. That afternoon, he had an unannounced phone interview with Pierre just to talk about various things. Pierre has typically been a very good interviewer, and so the chat almost sounded like it had been planned. The listeners knew the backstory, thought it was awesome that Tyler had called in just to talk to the station, and couldn't help but be moved by the station's and Tyler's generosity toward Ms. Grabowski. During the interview, Tyler heard that Aerosmith was against Led Zeppelin in their next match, which provoked the response, "Aw, crumbcakes!" He made it evident he did not expect Aerosmith to win that match, and he did NOT lobby for support, nor did he express any interest in trying to sway the voters. If anything, he did the opposite by saying that Aerosmith would never measure up to the Stones, the Beatles, Hendrix and Zeppelin. In spite of that, the DJs and listeners agreed that it was a wonderful show of faith for him to call, and Aerosmith beat Led Zeppelin by a mere 10 votes. At least 10 phone voters mentioned the call-in, so it was evident that this should have been the end of the line for Aerosmith. Instead they moved on to face Pink Floyd at the absolute most unfriendly timeslot imaginable for Floyd -- Friday night at 10 pm. The hardcore listeners and the Aerosmith fans were in full force, and the bandwagon was officially on. The question was whether it would carry its steam through the weekend-long hiatus into Monday, but Aerosmith brushed aside Queen as a warm-up for the day to easily win their quarterfinal match and take the 70's region. 80's Region Analysis Very little happened in the 80's that was interesting or unexpected. GNR got a match that wasn't in Pierre's shift, and still lost handily, which was the only official upset in the bracket. Metallica avenged their '07 loss to Tom Petty, stopped Rush from repeating this year, and then trounced the other former 80's winner, Bon Jovi to claim their rightful place. Rush and Bon Jovi are now both 0-4 against Metallica. 90's Region Analysis Tool being an 8 seed meant that we were back to the days of PJ vs Tool in round 2. We were spared that fate mercifully in '10, but Pearl Jam also seemed incredibly weak leading up to their clash with Tool. It was questionable how strong they would be this year, but they faced a repeat round 1 opponent in Live, to whom they almost lost last year, and absolutely destroyed them this time. Tool blew out their opponent as well, and the rematch was officially on to decide the 90's. The match was brutal and bloody, with Tool scraping out a win by the skin of their teeth. They would be unchallenged in round 3 by The Offspring, and it was expected that Alice in Chains would be the one 90's band left that could even make a dent in Tool's momentum. However, the lower side of the 90's was riddled with upsets, as Nirvana and STP lost in round 1, and AIC lost prematurely to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The Peppers were absolutely no competition for Tool, who laughed their way to the favorite four. 00's Region Analysis This region is typically the hardest to pick since there is no single clear-cut winner each year. However, there are five powerhouse bands. Considering four of them were going to have to fight it out on the top half, with Foo Fighters/Breaking Benjamin duking it out with Godsmack/Disturbed, the obvious choice was lonely Linkin Park who had the lower half of the bracket to themselves. They would only have to win one match of consequence, while the others would have to go through three to emerge on top. However, this balance was thrown off a bit by newcomer Cage the Elephant eliminating past champion Breaking Benjamin in round 1. The Foo Fighters beat them easily, and then also succeeded in putting away Disturbed, who had narrowly escaped Godsmack. However, one of the seeding surprised in the bracket was Shinedown at #3. Although Shinedown was certainly the best of the rest, it wasn't thought to be in the same league with the power five. After easily putting down Incubus and then Seether, they did battle with Linkin Park, and lost by a mere six votes in a match that probably should have gone to overtime. Still, Linkin Park held on, and also managed to beat the Foo Fighters to advance to the semis. Favorite Four The decision to put the entire block of the great eight on Monday was a bold one. It did force an extra match on Friday at 10 pm, which certainly cost Pink Floyd handsomely. However, the move was a good one. Although all four of the quarterfinals went somewhat predictably, with only Foo Fighters/Linkin Park in doubt, the pairings in the favorite four seemed to favor a finals of Metallica over Tool. Indeed, of the three remaining bands, the only one with the chops to deal a deathblow to Tool was Metallica, and Tool fans knew it. It's worth noting that Metallica was also eliminated in round 1 last year by listeners who didn't want to see them repeat. The irony is that Tool fans didn't consider the prospect of that same stigma coming back to them, however with each quarterfinal match-up, the on-air staff quietly pointed out that the only remaining champions were the past two -- Metallica and Tool -- with subtle questions like "Wouldn't it be great to hear an A to Z from Queen?" and not-so-subtle comments like "And let's not forget, they were last year's champion. You know, I'd really like to see somebody new, someone unexpected win this year." The unexpected most definitely did win. In the first semifinal, pitting Metallica against Linkin Park, I'm not sure anyone realistically thought Linkin Park had a chance. That didn't stop people from voting for them, though. Perhaps of their own accord, perhaps out of general spite, or perhaps by Tool fans trying to create the best match-up for their band in the finals, Linkin Park did indeed defeat Metallica by a VERY slim margin. In the other semi, Aerosmith faced Tool, the most successful band in M-M-Rch Madness history. This was an odd opponent for both bands. Tool wins by strength of having the swing voters flock to them -- Tool is not the favorite band of most people, but is on the top 10 or top 20 of enough people to win over the masses that don't have higher priorities. They also rock hard, and have a coolness to them for being counter-culture. Although Metallica can beat Tool at it's own game, anyone else has to find another way to take away those key swing votes. Therefore, Tool's worst nightmare is a Breaking Benjamin-esque bandwagon backed by the strength of a legitimate contender that just never caught their break before. Aerosmith, meanwhile, were looking at the most uncommercial band in the field, who were a runaway success on the strength of their progressive metal style that clashed entirely with Aerosmith, and not in their favor. Tool is also an uncategorically strong band that manages to manufacture votes out of places other bands didn't think existed, had a DJ working the contest who was a renowned Tool fan, and generally enjoys a strong wave of support from rabid texters who very smartly and strategically work the field and get all their friends to vote at the right time. In other words, this should have been a massacre. When the four songs concluded, Jaxon announced that there was a winner, who began breaking away after halftime as the other group started to flag. Based on past history, this is prototypical of a Tool match against a quality opponent that just can't keep apace with Tool. After a long pause, Jaxon conceded that the winner in this scenario, for once, was not Tool. Aerosmith's bandwagon had actually broken free of the Tool legions, and won somewhat impressively at that. Not that a one-vote win against Tool isn't impressive. It really didn't matter who won that match, versus Linkin Park. Either would have slaughtered the poor 00's winner. How they defeated Metallica is anybody's guess, as Metallica would have been more than a match for either the incessant Tool vote or the Aerosmith bandwagon. The writing was on the wall, and although there started to be some push back against the pro-Tyler-phone-call sentiment, Aerosmith won the finals by a huge margin. Tournament Play-by-Play These are the results of the tournament match write-ups, as they occurred. Round 1, Monday * Match 1 (3/7 11:00) - The Foo Fighters beat Muse with 68% of the vote. Songs played are Everlong, Uprising, This is a Call, Starlight. * Match 2 (3/7 12:00) - AC/DC slaughters Def Leppard. No percentage given. Songs played: Back in Black, Pour Some Sugar on Me, Whole Lotta Roses, Give Me All of Your Loving. * Match 3 (3/7 1:00) - Pearl Jam blows out Live. No percentage given. The MMR staff isn't good at analyzing what is and isn't a blow-out all the time. (Jaxon later called a 53% win close.) However, if this was indeed a blow-out, it bodes well for Pearl Jam to have a chance in round 2 against Tool. Songs played: Even Flow, Selling the Drama, Glorified G, I Alone. * Match 4 (3/7 2:00) - The Rolling Stones, for the sixth year in a row, have lost in round 1. This time, they were beaten by ZZ Top by 16 votes. Pierre threw a mock temper tantrum at the results, and (unrelated) was called a douchebag by one caller. Not that you can really blame him...after all, we can forget about Jillian Michaels and the fat people -- the Stones are now officially the biggest losers! Songs played: Satisfaction, Sharp-Dressed Man, Shatter, Tush. * Match 5 (3/7 3:00) - Jaxon broke in before the last song to announce that the match between Breaking Benjamin and Cage the Elephant was close and that you should vote if you hadn't. The winner proved to be Cage the Elephant with 53.6% of the vote, which was "about 40-50 votes" of a lead. This means somewhere between 550 and 700 people voted on this match. Songs played: Diary of Jane, Ain't No Rest For the Wicked, Sooner or Later, Even on a Cloudy Day. * Match 6 (3/7 4:00) - Ozzy Osbourne absolutely obliterates U2, with about 67% of the ballot. Songs played: Sunday, Bloody Sunday; Crazy Train; Beautiful Day; Over the Mountain * Match 7 (3/7 5:00) - Tool, expectedly, takes down Dave Matthews Band with 62.4% of the vote: The Pot, Ants Marching, Sober, What Would You Say? * Match 8 (3/7 6:00) - Lynyrd Skynyrd surprises Jimi Hendrix with 55% of the vote. Songs played: Sweet Home Alabama, All Along the Watchtower, What's Your Name?, Voodoo Child * Match 9 (3/7 7:00) - Godsmack plasters 3 Doors Down against the wall. No percentage given. Songs played: Cry Like a Bitch, Kryptonite, Voodoo, Not My Time * Match 10 (3/7 8:00) - Bon Jovi defeats Genesis. Details unknown. * Match 11 (3/7 9:00) - The Offspring take a massive early lead against Soundgarden, and hold on with 56.4% of the text. Songs played: Self Esteem, Spoonman, Why Don't You Get a Job?, Outshined. Summary: Mostly expected results. The Rolling Stones lost. Again. I had errantly suggested that Live might have a chance against Pearl Jam, figuring people were sick of hearing them. Instead, Pearl Jam is preparing for a fight in round 2. Breaking Benjamin losing to Cage the Elephant was a minor surprise, but not completely unexpected. I felt that the top half of the 70's bracket was Hendrix's to lost, and, well, he lost. I guess that means...Queen is going to the great eight? However, if you want to ask the biggest surprise of the day, it's the match between Ozzy and U2. It isn't that Ozzy won. You can never be surprised when Ozzy wins or loses a match-up, and he has defeated U2 before. What's astonishing is the margin of victory. A 12 seed is not supposed to double up on a 5 seed. That's the kind of blow-outs Iron Maiden was registering last year. If Ozzy can stage another defeat like that against AC/DC, I'll be more impressed. Until then, it's a fluke from the Prince of Random. Round 1, Tuesday * Match 12 (3/8 11:00) - Despite an early lead by The Who, fans of The Boss push the match into a tie at the close of the fourth song, and the match goes into overtime. Overtime has a huge intermission as Pierre does the planner and then a commercial break passes, before the final two songs are played. Based on on-air commentary on how the tie is derived, I have a suspicion that the phone votes may not have been counted in this match, as the tie was determined exclusively based on the "even bars" on the screen tabulating the text vote. Considering the momentum at the end of regulation was clearly in favor of Bruce, it was reasonable to assume that this tide would continue into overtime. However, it would seem the Who fans were lulled into a false sense of security at halftime, and they came roaring back at the announcement of the tie, and won by a margin of 60 votes. Songs played: Who Are You?, Born to Run, Long Live Rock, Born in the U.S.A., (long pause), Pinball Wizard, Thunder Road * Match 13 (3/8 12:00) - Disturbed whoops Audioslave with 58% of the vote. Songs played: Down With the Sickness, Show Me How to Live, Another Way to Die, Doesn't Remind Me * Match 14 (3/8 1:00) - Van Halen beats Motley Crue. No percentage given, but pic indicates a decisive victory. Songs played: Eruption/You Really Got Me; Girls, Girls, Girls; Janie's Crying, Shout at the Devil * Match 15 (3/8 2:00) - Green Day destroys Smashing Pumpkins with 68.1%. Songs played: (unknown), Bullet on Butterfly Wings, American Idiot, Cherub Rock * Match 16 (3/8 3:00) - Despite a lot of the phone votes seeming to be for KISS, this match was a rout in the other direction, as Queen had over 80% (!) over the text vote. Songs played: Another One Bites the Dust, Rock and Roll All Nite, Fat-Bottomed Girls, Lick it Up * Match 17 (3/8 4:00) - Seether wins easily, taking 68% against Papa Roach. Songs played: Last Resort, Remedy, Kick in the Teeth, Fake It * Match 18 (3/8 5:00) - Rush easily takes down Beastie Boys with 61 .1% of the vote. Songs played: Limelight, Don't Sleep Till Brooklyn, Freewill, Sabotage * Match 19 (3/8 6:00) - Weezer narrowly upsets Nirvana with 50.9% of the vote. Songs played: Smells Like Teen Spirit, Buddy Holly, Breed, Troublemaker * Match 20 (3/8 7:00) - The Doors fought as good as a band can do against Led Zeppelin, but ended up with just 41% of the vote. Songs played: unknown * Match 21 (3/8 8:00) - In a highly-contested match-up, Shinedown escapes Incubus by a margin of about 12 votes. Songs played: The Sound of Madness, Pardon Me, Save Me, Wish You Were Here * Match 22 (3/8 9:00) - Initially it looked as if Guns'N'Roses had a chance. They were losing the phone, but winning the text at halftime. However, The Police came back to claim the text vote as well by 20 votes, and G'N'R was hated out. Songs played: Paradise City, Message in a Bottle, Mr. Brownstone, Canary in a Coal Mine I'm tempted to call shenanigans on our first match of the day, but ultimately I wanted The Who to win, so I'm not complaining. Nirvana proves to be only marginally better than The Rolling Stones, losing to a formerly winless band. GNR loses to anti-votes. Queen's victory over KISS was amazing, however, considering the phone vote sounded even. Round 1, Wednesday * Match 23 (3/9 11:00) - Creed got the first vote off the phones, but that's likely the only vote they held in this match before Red Hot Chili Peppers destroyed them. Well, destroyed by conventional considerations, however 68-32 is not completely embarrassing for Creed, and I'm impressed with their outing. Songs played - Give It Away, Higher, Dani California, One * Match 24 (3/9 12:00) - Pierre played a third song at the end for The Ramones because their songs are so short, but their votals also came up short against Aerosmith, who beat them by just over a 3:2 margin. Songs played: Walk This Way, Blitzkrieg Bop, Dude Looks Like a Lady, Rock and Roll High School, Rockaway Beach * Match 25 (3/9 1:00) - In a match that completely surprised me, The Killers have defeated Kings of Leon. No percentage given. Songs played: Mr. Brightside, Sex on Fire, Can You Read My Mind?, Radioactive * Match 26 (3/9 2:00) - Tom Petty won't back down, and sent Iron Maiden running to the hills. The number of the beast in this case, was 52.1% for Petty. Songs played: American Girl, Run to the Hills, Don't Do Me Like That, Number of the Beast * Match 27 (3/9 3:00) - 54.3% of the vote went to Korn over Stone Temple Pilots in a remarkable upset! Songs played: Interstate Love Song, Freak on a Leash, ToaHiaPH, * Match 28 (3/9 4:00) - Bob Marley defeats Black Sabbath once again, with 53.9% this year. Songs played: Iron Man, Jamming, Fairies Wear Boots(?), Buffalo Soldier * Match 29 (3/9 5:00) - Linkin Park blows away Three Days Grace, pulling 64% of the vote. Songs played: Somewhere I Belong, Animal I Have Become, One Step Closer, Just Like You * Match 30 (3/9 6:00) - Metallica put the hurt on REM, taking 3/4 of the vote. Songs played: Enter Sandman, End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine), For Whom the Bell Tolls, The One I Love * Match 31 (3/9 7:00) - Alice in Chains blows out Collective Soul, nearly matching Metallica's margin of victory. Songs played: Would?, Shine, Down in a Hole, Why pt. 2 * Match 32 (3/9 8:00) - Although Jacky Bam-Bam called it close, he then declared that Pink Floyd had beaten The Grateful Dead with 67% of the vote. My roommate's response, "Oh it was close. It's just that only six people voted." However, that was clearly not the case considering how heated the phones were. Sorry, Pierre. Songs played: Time, Touch of Grey, Have a Cigar, Casey Jones * Match 33 (3/9 9:00) - Cage the Elephant was outclassed against the Foo Fighters. Songs played: My Hero, In One Ear, Monkey Wrench, Back Against the Wall Round 2, Thursday * Match 34 (11:00) - AC/DC defeats Ozzy Osbourne decisively. Songs played: You Shook Me All Night Long, Flying High Again, Thunderstruck, Mr. Crowley * Match 35 (12:00) - The match of the tournament went on the line early in round 2. Tool and Pearl Jam, duking it out for supremacy of the 90's, entered halftime with just a 10 vote gap. That gap widened during the second half, however, as Tool pulled ahead with a marginal victory of 25 votes on a scale of over 2000 ballots. (From WMMR's facebook page: "It was a 51 vote difference on the texts in favor of Tool. There was a 27 vote difference in favor of Pearl Jam on the phones and e-mail. That means Tool wins by 24 votes!" A 0.4% difference being 51 votes would suggest a texting total of over 10,000 though!) If Pearl Jam can't bring down Tool under favorable circumstances, who can? Songs played: Jeremy, Vicarious, rearviewmirror, Forty-Six and 2 * Match 36 (1:00) - In a battle of two bands from down south, Lynyrd Skynyrd defeats ZZ Top handily, with 68% of the vote. Songs played: Give Me All Your Lovin', That Smell, Got Me Under Pressure, Gimme Three Steps * Match 37 (2:00) - Disturbed avenged their loss in 2006 in an extra long match against Godsmack, taking 56% of the vote. Songs played: Whatever, Inside the Fire, Keep Away, Land of Confusion, Voodoo, Stupify * Match 38 (3:00) - Bon Jovi pulled ahead of Van Halen at halftime of the battle of two-word last names, and broke away with 56.8% of the vote. Songs played: Livin' on a Prayer, Running With the Devil, Bad Medicine, Hot for Teacher * Match 39 (4:00) - The SoCal punk duel finds Green Day coming up short against The Offspring, 51-49. Songs played: Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated), Longview, Pretty Fly (For a White Guy), Welcome to Paradise * Match 40 (5:00) - Queen gets a solid win to move past The Who. Songs played: Baba Riley, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Real Me, We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions * Match 41 (6:00) - Shinedown manages just over 60% against Seether. Songs played: Gasoline, If You Only Knew, Fine Again, H eroes * Match 42 (7:00) - Rush completely annihilates The Police. Songs played: Tom Sawyer, Can't Stand Losing You, The Spirit of Radio, So Lonely * Match 43 (8:00) - The Red Hot Chili Peppers move ahead, after nearly doubling Weezer. Songs played: (unknown, Can't Stop, Undone (The Sweater Song), Suck My Kiss * Match 44 (9:00) - Earlier today, Stephen Tyler called in after catching wind of MMRch Madness, and spoke at length with Pierre. Upon hearing Aerosmith was up against Led Zeppelin tonight, his response was "aw, crumbcakes." Tyler admitted that Aerosmith would never equal Led Zeppelin, but the good people of Philadelphia respected the gesture he had made in taking the time to call our city, and a wave of pro-Aerosmith sentiment actually got them past the mighty Led Zep by a mere 10 votes. Songs played: Rock and Roll, Sweet Emotion, Houses of the Holy, Rag Doll Poor Pearl Jam had everything going their way for their match against Tool and STILL couldn't get it done. And poor Offspring, who had been doing so well this year for a change, that have to get run over by Tool in round 3. All of the surprise upstarts from round 1 have been weeded out now, (except Korn who has yet to play,) but yet the bracket doesn't feel quite regular. Godsmack is out. Breaking Benjamin is out. Led Zeppelin is out, with a distinct possibility of Pink Floyd sharing that fate. Round 2 and 3, Friday * Match 45 (11:00) - The Killers are defeated qu ite handily by Linkin Park to start the day. Songs played: Somebody Told Me, Numb, When You Were Young, Breaking the Habit * Match 46 (12:00) - Tom Petty hangs tough with Metallica and keeps things even by halftime, but simply doesn't have the staying power to pull it off this year, and falls behind by 50 votes. Thus, Metallica avenges their lone past 80's loss (not counting last year's hate-out round 1 loss.) Songs played: Refugee, Fade to Black, Learning to Fly, I Disappear * Match 47 (1:00) - Alice in Chains puts an end to Korn's run this year, but the match was still surprisingly close. Songs played: Freak on a Leash, No Excuses, Falling Away From Me, Down in a Hole * Match 48 (2:00) - Pink Floyd pushes their way past Bob Marley without too much difficulty. They have won their first two matches in every single MMRch Madness. Songs played: Could You Be Loved, Empty Spaces/Young Lust, Get Up Stand Up, Comfortably Numb * Match 49 (3:00) - Disturbed makes a show of it, but the heavy favorite Foo Fighters narrowly escape defeat. Songs played: Everlong, Down With the Sickness, Rope, The Animal * Match 50 (4:00) - Despite winning the text vote by a very narrow margin, and having a lead throughout the entire match, AC/DC gives ground at the very end of the match to a surge by Bon Jovi fans, whose phone ballot pulls them out with a 21 vote lead. Songs played: (unknown), You Give Love a Bad Name, Shot Down in Flames, Lay Your Hands on Me * Match 51 (5:00) - The aired phone votes sounded somewhat close, but Tool takes out The Offspring by a better than 4:3 margin. Songs played: Schism, Gotta Get Away, Aenema (with the funky ae character), Hammerhead * Match 52 (6:00) - Queen blows Lynyrd Skynyrd away with 55.8% of the vote. Songs played: Gimme Three Steps, Fat-Bottomed Girls, Simple Man, Crazy Little Thing Called Love. * Match 53 (7:00) - In perhaps the tightest match of the tournam ent Linkin Park takes it over Shinedown by a shocking 6 votes to meet the Foo.Songs played: Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom), What I've Done, Fly From the Inside, Faint. * Match 54 (8:00) - Although Rush had the phone vote in the first half and the texts were tied, Metallica had a late surge and won convincingly with 61.1% of the vote and will face Jovi on Mon. Songs played: Free Will, Sad But True, Subdivisions, Welcome Home (Sanitarium). * Match 55 (9:00) - RHCP upsets A.I.C with 51.1% of the vote to take on last year's champ Tool. Songs played: Tell Me Baby, Heaven Beside You, Aeroplane, Angry Chair. * Match 56 (10:00) - Aerosmith gets the win over Pink Floyd with 54.1% of the vote to face Queen in the Great 8. Songs Played: Love in a Elevator, Hey You, Toys in the Attic, Run Like Hell. Final 8, Monday * Match 57 (11:00) - Foo Fighters had the early lead, and looked to be walking away from it, but Linkin Park staged a return and pushed through halftime and into the second half to come back and even reverse the lead completely. They win with 52.1% (50-60 vote margin) and advance to the favorite four as the 00's representative. Songs played: This is a Call, One Step Closer, Monkey Wrench, New Divide * Match 58 (12:00) - Metallica took a short lead against Bon Jovi early on, but had the staying power to extend that lead as the match continued, and won by about 100 votes. Songs played: You Give Love a Bad Name; Enter Sandman; Bad Medicine; Sad, But True * Match 59 (1:00) - Tool wins easily, blowing out [Hot Chili Peppers with 54% of the vote. Songs played: The Pot, Dani California, Prison Sex, Suck My Kiss * Match 60 (2:00) - Aerosmith continues to roll their competition, winning with 53.8% over Queen to take the 70's region. Songs played: Another One Bites the Dust, Walk This Way, Fat-Bottomed Girls, Mama Kin * Match 61 (3:00) - In a surprise upset, Metallica drops the match to Linkin Park by a small margin. Were Tool fans anti-voting against the one band they know poses a threat to them, were people generally sick of Metallica, or was this all truly a feather in Linkin Park's cap? Songs played: Bleed it Out, Wherever I May Roam, Numb, King Nothing * Match 62: (4:00) - On Jaxon's shift, with of course Jaxon being a renowned Tool fan , he makes the comment at resolution that it was very tight at halftime, but one band started pulling ahead and broke away to win it. After a very long drumroll, it could only be he was going to account Tool...except that he didn't! Aerosmith wins with 52.7% to make the finals! Songs played: Vicarious, Sweet Emotion, Sober, Back in the Saddle * Match 63 (5:00) - The finals aren't even close. In our most lopsided tournament win to date, Aerosmith destroys Linkin Park by a margin of exactly 10%. Songs played: What I've Done, Dude Looks Like a Lady, Somewhere I Belong, (unknown), In The End, Living on the Edge Category:Tournament Recaps